Meet Elizabeth Lennard
Elizabeth Lennard is an artist who defies traditional boundaries, experimenting and exploring various techniques to best express her vision. Her work spans an impressive array of media, from photography and film to drawing and watercolor, each chosen to convey her unique interpretation of reality. Her versatile approach creates a surreal, immersive world shaped by her own lens.
Born in New York in 1953, Lennard moved to Paris in 1978. These two cities are intrinsic to Lennard’s work, as she understood her love of art thanks to the timeless architecture and sculptures of Paris, where she still lives, and transferred that passion for art to her vision of New York, her birthplace.
Her passion for cities and urban landscapes stands out in her pieces of art, where she plays with photography and oil painting, creating striking juxtapositions. By adding color through oil paint to black-and-white photographs, Lennard draws the viewer’s eye to architectural and landscape details, capturing their essence in a striking, imaginative way.
Lennard’s artwork is the result of collaborations with other artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers, who have inspired her muse. As well as solo interdisciplinary projects and exhibitions showcase her one of the most prolific and experimental artists in contemporary art.
She began to take an interest in photography at the age of 16 when she began photographing her neighbors. Later, Lennard studied film and photography at SFAI, UCSC and UCLA. In art school, she studied drawing and photography and began using watercolors and pastels. It was during this time that she began experimenting with hand-coloring photographs, a signature technique that adds warmth and depth to her images.
“I like the texture of oil paint on a print. I don’t like the object that a color photograph is. Paint gives a more organic, living substance to the hand-colored photograph. And I love color.” She explains.
Elizabeth Lennard’s impressive body of work includes the experimental film Tokyo Melody, a portrait of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto; the documentaries The Stein Family: The Making of Modern Art and Edith Wharton: The Sense of Harmony. As well as the book on Alexander Chemetoff’s Bamboo Garden. Her work has been exhibited in prestigious venues, including the Centre Pompidou, among others.
At MAG The Women Gallery, we are proud to present select works by this remarkable photographer, visual artist, and director. Discover Elizabeth Lennard’s creations and add one to your collection!
Sources:
https://www.elizabethlennard.net
https://www.rogallery.com/artists/elizabeth-lennard
http://grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5309-e1027-design-for-living-eileen-gray-and-jean-badovici